AN: Ladies and gentlemen, I'm baaaaack! Sorry for the wait, but you see, it was the week of my birthday last week and my brother came home from college for the summer, plus I was also reeling with excitement over seeing Avengers: Age of Ultron, so I think you can all understand why there was a bit of a lack in updating any of my stories. Now for those of you who are eagerly awaiting the first chapter of my next story in the Gundam SEED Prime Series, don't worry, I'm only taking a short break from it so I can do some work on some of my other stories, like this one here. I promise that I won't make you guys wait for like the entire summer before I post the first chapter of that story, but it will likely take a while, since I had spent so much time focusing on it instead of my other stories like this one.

Deadpool: Yeah, you should be ashamed of yourself! Not giving us MARVELs, and those other two kids, the attention we deserve!

AN:...Well looks like that Anti-Deadpool security system was a total waste of money. sigh I am so taking that back.

Deadpool: Please! You can't keep anything secure from the merc with a mou-AAAAAAAH! [Gets tied up in a rope trap and hangs down from a tree]

AN: Fortunately, the good old, traditional traps are still as reliable as ever. Oh and before you try to cut yourself down, that rope is made of an indestructible material from S.H.I.E.L.D., and need I remind you that there's a chance these author note zones are extremely likely cancel out your usual brand of crazy while also rendering your healing factor unusable?

Deadpool: Ah come on man! This isn't funny! What did I ever do to you?!

AN: Oh I don't know, why don't we take a look at some of the past authors notes for this story, or the fact that you tried to blow up my studio trying to get in.

Deadpool: I meant recently!

AN: That second thing was an hour ago.

Deadpool: Potato Potato. (I have know idea how to write that saying accurately, so please let me know if I wrote it wrong)

AN:...You know what, I'm not going to bother with you anymore. SECURITY! Get this nutcase out of my studio so I can start this thing.

Zuko: Can I burn him alive first.

AN: Eh, sure why not.

Deadpool: Wait, what?

[Screams of pain and sounds of fire bending suddenly begin to go off from the other room as the door to said room closes]

AN: Well, while they're goofing around out there, let's get on with the newest chapter of Code: Avengers.

I do not own anything from either of the Code Lyoko or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

Chapter 13: 459

A couple of weeks had passed since the Masters of Evil had attacked the Mansion, and in that time, things seemed to fall back into the usual routine for the Avengers. For most that meant that they were able to enjoy themselves as they dealt with both their daily lives as heroes and as their civilian identities, but for others, it was not quite as relaxing. The main case of this being for one Janet Van Dyne, mainly because she was now trying doubly hard to get Hank to take a break from all forms of work so that they could go on a small vacation, just the two of them. Of course, with Hank being who he is, Janet was having a very difficult time convincing him to do so, much to Janet's sorrow and irritation, and Aelita's slight annoyance.

Somehow, the pink haired Avenger had always been around whenever Janet was trying to get Hank to take said vacations, and Janet's attempts to convince Hank, as well as Hank's constant obliviousness and insistence against the ideas were starting to get on Aelita's nerves a little bit while also reminding her of some of the things she had to go through to convince Jeremy to take a break back in the day. Sadly, Aelita was having to endure such an attempt once again as she flew the Quinjet to a S.H.I.E.L.D. base after Hank and Janet had gotten a call from an old friend of the latter's.

"I'm just saying it doesn't always have to be work, work, work," Janet tried explaining to Hank while Aelita could feel her eye beginning to twitch at the "unofficial" couple. "We could take break, get away and relax, have some fun."

"Science is fun," Hank stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Janet only groaned in annoyance before turning to their pilot and saying, "Aelita, help me out here."

"No way," Aelita stated as she landed the Avengers' main mode of transportation at the base. "I had to struggle just as much as you did when it came to convincing Jeremy of this kind of thing, and I normally had to do it on my own. If I could do it when I was just in Junior High, then you, as an adult, should be able to do so on your own just fine."

Janet merely crossed her arms as the three disembarked from the jet and out onto the large base's landing platform when an idea of a new tactic struck her. "Maybe Tony would go with me," Janet muttered loudly enough for Hank to hear.

"Tony," Hank exclaimed in shock and slight jealousy while Aelita only smirked a little at Janet's change in tactics. "Why would you ask Tony?"

"You mean aside from the money, good looks, and super armor," Aelita pointed out with a knowing smile which only lead Hank to scowl a bit.

"You gotta admit Hank, the girl's got a point, and I'm not just saying that because I was about to say the same thing," a new voice suddenly added. The three then turned to see a blonde woman with blue eyes wearing a brown S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform that seemed more like an aviator's suit, black boots, and a red scarf had walked up to them, and upon seeing this particular woman, Janet's face instantly lit up with a smile.

"Carol," Janet exclaimed happily as she embraced the blonde woman in a tight hug. "I'm so glad you called! I've missed you!"

"I missed you too, Jan," Carol chuckled as she returned the hug. "And who's your new friend that seems to know how to quip it out with the best of them? I hope you're not trying to replace me or something."

"Like I could if I tried," Janet said as she immediately released Carol from her hug to pull Aelita over to the blonde. "Carol, this is Aelita Stern, the Angel Guardian. Aelita, this is Carol Danvers. We're old friends from college."

"Nice to meet you Miss Danvers," Aelita said politely as she shook hands with Carol.

"Likewise Aelita, but please, Carol's fine," Carol replied. Her face then grew a bit more serious as she then added, "Anyways, as much as I love the reunion and meeting your newest BFF Jan, Hank's actually the one I need to see. I need his help."

"Really," Janet and Hank both asked, the former in confusion and the latter in excitement.

Carol then motioned for the three to follow her, and then led them inside the base and into a room that was covered by a glass ceiling and had monitors of different views of the starry skies of space. As she followed after them, Janet had to pause and ask, "Wait, what's this place again?"

"Try to keep up Jan," Hank told his fellow size changer. "This is a joint military-S.H.I.E.L.D. facility working with one of the most advanced, space-based telescopes ever designed."

"And this is Doctor Philip Lawson, our lead scientist," Carol then introduced as she indicated a man with green eyes and black hair who wore a blue uniform with a white dress shirt and black tie.

"I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am to meet you," Lawson said as he shook hands with Hank while the girls moved over to the side with Carol. "Major Danvers has told me a lot about you."

Janet gave Lawson a quick once over before she moved over to Carol with a sly look and whispered, "Ooh, he's cute."

"You got that right," Aelita admitted in a whisper of her own while Hank just shot Janet an irritated, jealous look.

"Subtle Jan," Carol told the Wasp with a small eye roll while Janet just gave a small wave to Hank with a sly, yet also innocent look. Carol then moved up to indicate the image that the monitors began to display as she explained, "This is what I wanted to show you Hank. We're linked to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s orbital telescope. It spotted the object a few days ago. The team here thought it was a comet at first, but it was moving faster than anything they'd ever seen. We're trying to get a better look at it."

Hank, Aelita, and Janet all looked to the monitors to see a small, shinning object that seemed to be moving across the starry sky, but it was a bit too small for them to get a good enough look at it so that they could consider it as something more than a shooting star. "The last time I dealt with something from space, it was a large comet that had been redirected to hit the factory by that monster, and the time before that wasn't any more pleasant," Aelita commented.

Carol raised an eyebrow in confusion at Aelita for a moment before, and was about to ask what the pink haired girl was talking about before Janet simply placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder and said, "It's a long, and very sensitive subject for her to talk about, so don't ask just yet."

Carol nodded in understanding and then turned her attention back to the matter at hand. "Live feed from the telescope is coming in now," Doctor Lawson then said as he zoomed in on the object, revealing it to appear like a large, purple, four pointed star. "The data stream is on the monitor to the left, Doctor Pym."

"What're you thinking Carol," Hank asked as he raised a hand to his chin in contemplation while Aelita crossed her arms in thought.

"I think its extraterrestrial," Carol admitted. "But since I'm not a fan of everyone thinking I'm crazy, I wanted an expert opinion. Yours."

"Whoa, aliens? That's just crazy," Janet remarked as she crossed her arms.

"Said the girl who can not only shrink herself down and grow wings, but also hangs out with an Asgardian, a secret civilization's king, a soldier from World War II, an archer, the Hulk, and me and my brother," Aelita pointed out, which made Carol smile as she tried to suppress a small bit of laughter at the sheepish look that Janet had developed in response to Aelita's bit of reasoning.

"The composition includes several unknown elements," Hank stated as he looked over the readouts. "But nothing suggests anything biological, and I'm not seeing any evidence of intelligence." The minute Hank said that, the object seemed to move in another direction before stopping right in front of the camera that was watching it. "Never mind."

"Hey it turned," Janet exclaimed in slight humor before her expression and tone changed to serious. "It looks like it's coming right at…"

A minute later, the object had become exceptionally larger before the feed from the telescope was lost completely, leaving nothing but static. "That's not good," Aelita commented.

"And that's worse," Hank said as he pointed up out the window to indicate the object on the monitor flying over their heads. Everyone could only stare in shock when the object just blasted through the large antenna on the base, caused the lights to shut off, and then continue on to crash somewhere in the nearby forest.

"Philip, what's happening," Carol demanded when the lights finally came back on and saw that all the monitors were barely getting any images through.

"One of the radar towers went offline," Philip explained as his hands flew across his keyboard. "It caused a surge, which blew back into our systems. I'm trying to reroute power."

"Went offline? Something blew up," Janet exclaimed in worry.

"Whatever disabled the orbital telescope just made Earth fall," Hank then observed. "I'd say about three and a quarter miles from the observatory."

"Well that's a bit too big of a coincidence," Aelita remarked with a serious expression as Carol went over to a nearby locker. "So what're we saying, here? Are we under attack?"

"I'm not saying that," Hank reassured Aelita and Wasp, the latter of which was clearly looking like she was starting to panic.

"I am," Carol stated as she pulled out a silver rifle. She then smirked and asked, "Who's up for a little first contact?"

"We're in," Aelita stated as she tapped her watch and transformed into Angel Guardian. The other two Avengers also nodded in agreement and then joined Aelita and Carol as they headed out of the room to the garage so they could get a vehicle to get them out to the crash site, none of them ever noticing the slightly worried look that Doctor Lawson was giving them.

A few hours later, Hank and Aelita were flying towards the crash site while Janet rode in a jeep from the observatory with Carol, and the blonde was quick to take advantage of the moment to have a bit of a talk with her old friend. "You're being kind of horrible to him. You know that, right," Carol lightly scolded Janet.

"Who," Janet asked in confusion.

"Hank, genius," Carol replied with a heavy amount of sarcasm when she called Janet genius. "You can tell he's upset."

"Oh no," Janet immediately argued with a small scowl. "See, you actually have to have emotions before you can get upset."

"Jan, you have to know that you've got him wrapped around your finger," Carol then pointed out.

"Whatever," Janet scoffed with her arms crossed. "From day one, it's been strictly business. Well, strictly science."

"Yeah well, if you keep playing your little jealousy games with him, he's going to strictly hate you," Carol quickly argued.

"Well that'd be better than not getting noticed at all," Janet sighed as she conveyed her one greatest insecurity when it came to Hank. Carol did not need to be a genius to realize that Janet honestly felt that Hank did not consider her to be as important to him as his work, but Carol knew far better than that, and she had a feeling that Aelita did as well.

Upon thinking of the pink haired girl and seeing her flying alongside them with her shinning wings, Carol had to ask, "So what's really the story on your pink haired friend? I may have read the official S.H.I.E.L.D. report on her and her brother, but I'm not one to buy it that easily."

"It's a bit personal for her," Janet replied. "And it's really not my place to say. If you really want to know the full story on Aelita and Ulrich, you'd have to ask one of them yourself. All I can say is that they've been through a lot in their lives, and it wasn't exactly easy for them before they met me and Hank, along with the rest of the Avengers." Janet then looked ahead of them and her eyes instantly widened as she said, "Call me crazy, but I think we're close."

Carol immediately pulled the jeep to a stop, as Janet's early statement proved to be a bit of an understatement, as they had pulled right up to the edge of the crater that the object had created upon landing, and they could see a bit of a purple glow coming from the center as they climbed out. They made a mild note of Hank returning to his normal size after dismounting from the fly he was riding on, and then looked to see that the source of the glow was actually just the center of the empty crater. "Well that's kind of disappointing," Aelita remarked as she dismissed the energy field she had prepared just in case.

"And you're sure this isn't aliens," Wasp asked worriedly.

"There was no biological component," Hank reminded her. "And that means no life. No aliens."

"Just because there's no sign of a biological component that we know of, doesn't necessarily mean that there's no life, Hank," Aelita pointed out, her scowl telling both of her friends that she was clearly thinking about X.A.N.A.

"You think we should call in the other Avengers," Janet then asked, now getting more scared after hearing Aelita's counterargument.

"For what," Carol asked as Hank knelt down to examine a small burn mark on the ground near the crater. After examining both the ground and a bit of the dirt from the burn mark for a second, everyone was quickly beginning to tense up. "Alright Hank, talk to me here," Carol then whispered.

"There's something here," Hank muttered in reply.

Janet then looked around nervously before turning back and saying, "Aliens!"

"Let's keep moving," Hank then suggested as he rose up to his feet again. "And it's not aliens."

"Well what do you think it could be, Mister Space Expert," Aelita asked, but before Hank could reply, they all heard a slight rustling nearby, which gave Wasp enough reason to shrink down and start flying around the group before firing her stingers in a random direction.

After a minute of nothing happening in response to this though, everyone relaxed a bit with a collective sigh of relief, until Hank noticed a slight, green glow from between the nearby trees. "DOWN," Ant-Man shouted, and everyone quickly dove for cover just before a green laser hit the ground where they were all just standing.

"Where is it," Wasp asked as she and Aelita flew up to get a better look around. After gazing around for a minute and then squinting in a certain direction, Aelita could see a slight distortion in the air, which was soon followed by what looked like a pair of glowing, green eyes.

"Energy field," Aelita immediately shouted out in reflex as she fired a barrage of said attack towards the distortion, only to unsuccessfully hit anything.

When Aelita finally ceased her barrage, Wasp had to fly up to her with a slightly mischievous smirk as she asked the pink haired girl, "'Energy Field!'? What was that?"

"Sorry. Reflex reaction," Aelita explained. "I used to have to call out the name of my attacks before I could use them a lot of times back on Lyoko."

"Alright, I've changed my mind," Carol cut in as she pointed her rifle out towards the surrounding woods. "Call your team in. Especially Invisible-Monster-Detector-Man."

Hank did not reply to Carol's remark as he sent out a coded call to the other Avengers through his helmet's comm. device, but he knew that it would likely be a while before any of the other Avengers could get there in time to help, and they did not seem to have the time to wait, especially if the blast that nearly hit Hank had he not shrunk down in time was any indication. Wasp and Angel Guardian were quick to let lose a pair of barrages in the direction of the last laser attack, but once again, their efforts proved to be fruitless. "Okay, we're officially in trouble," Wasp admitted.

"You think," Carol and Aelita both remarked at the same time. The three women then glanced down to see a swarm of ants suddenly crawl past them across the ground and towards a single direction. Carol was quick to raise her rifle to try and shoot them, but Janet and Aelita quickly warded her off knowing that this was likely Hank's doing.

Their hunch was proved right as the ants suddenly began to rise up and then seem to give them a visible target as they crawled along the body of their invisible attacker, who seemed to be a very large being with long arms and a flat head that almost did not seem to have a neck connecting it to its body. "Invisible-Monster-Detector-Man has the day off," Hank quipped as he returned to normal size once again.

"This is probably your idea of good time, isn't it," Janet asked crossly as she pointed an accusing finger at Hank.

"Except for the shooting, yes," Hank admitted with what seemed to be pride, though it was hard to tell since he was currently wearing his Ant-Man helmet.

"Um, guys," Aelita gasped as she pointed at the object Hank's ants had surrounded. "What is that thing?"

Before anyone could answer Aelita's question, a sudden energy wave from the unknown attacker blasted all four of them off their feet, along with the ants that had surrounded them, but upon glancing back up again, they saw that there was no longer any need for the ants, since the figure had now become visible without them, revealing that the monster was in fact not a living creature at all. What they saw instead was a large, purple and silver robot with green lights on its torso and shoulders along green eyes stomping towards them. Janet was quick to give Hank a small kick to his shoulder, since she was still in her smaller size, before saying, "I thought you said it wasn't aliens?"

"I never said it wasn't an alien robot," Hank pointed out. He then glanced back at the approaching machine before he whispered, "No sudden moves."

"What, are you on its side or something," Janet asked, rhetorically. "It's an evil robot!"

"In my experience, unless you build them yourself, all robots are evil," Aelita pointed out as she readied an energy field in one hand.

"Yeah, I'm gonna shoot it now if that's okay with you three," Carol stated as she raised her rifle.

"No," Hank cried out. "It may have been acting in self defense. It may not even understand what's happening here."

"So it decided to just start shooting at us while we were all just standing around and looking around nervously," Aelita asked Hank rhetorically, pointing out one major flaw in Hank's logic.

"Just don't make any threatening moves," Hank told the three women, but his point was proven to be ill placed as the robot fired on them once again, leading Wasp and Aelita to fly up and open fire on their attacker after they and the others had jumped out of the way. Carol was quick to follow after the two female Avengers by firing a few shots from her rifle until Hank flew up to her on a fly and shouted, "You may want to stop that! I think its focusing on your weapon!"

"I'll give it a better look," Carol replied before she resumed firing. She was not able to fire at the robot for long, because it was only a moment later when the robot fired on her again, and knocked the rifle out of Carol's hands, and Carol herself to the ground.

Wasp was about to fly up with Aelita right alongside her when Hank stopped them once again telling them to stop attacking the machine. "It attacked us first," Wasp pointed out.

"JAN," Hank shouted pleadingly, and after a small glance at Hank, Janet and Aelita both stood down, dispelling the energy in both their stingers and energy fields respectively. Sadly, it did not seem to be that easy, as the robot then started firing on Aelita.

"Still think its acting out of self defense," Janet asked Hank as Aelita weaved around the blasts in mid-air.

"This is yet another reason why I hate robots," Aelita shouted as she barely avoided getting singed by a laser that came a little too close to her shoulder.

"Aelita, wait," Hank then shouted as Aelita prepared to charge the machine again. "It may simply be thinking that your suit is a weapon as well! Power down!"

"One, that's just crazy! If it did think that, then why is it only after me and not you and Wasp as well," Aelita pointed out to Hank. "And two, I am not powering down my suit! If I do that and you're wrong then I'm a goner, and you know that!"

"Then would you at least land and retract your wings," Hank suggested.

Aelita hesitated for a moment, but in the end, simply nodded as she landed and did as Hank asked. A few tense minutes after she did, the robot seemed to freeze in its tracks before turning towards the direction of the observatory and then started walking in that direction, acting as though they were not even there at all. "Well, that was embarrassing," Wasp commented.

"It has to be heading for the observatory," Hank deduced. "Carol, drive ahead and evacuate everybody. We'll buy you some time."

Carol just nodded before climbing into the jeep and driving off towards the observatory as fast she could. As she watched her friend go, Wasp had to ask, "Buy some time? Let me guess, your gonna try and talk to it."

"Well, yes," Hank replied as he resumed normal size again before tapping the other control on his suit's belt. "But I'm going be very firm." A minute later, Giant-Man stood tall and proud where Hank previously was, and he then began moving in the direction that the robot had been going.

"Great, and meanwhile, if that thing so much as sees me using my wings to float, it will consider me a hostile threat," Aelita remarked as she took to the skies once again along with Janet so that they could keep up with their large friend. "I should've just gone out with Peter tonight like Ulrich did with Ava, or at least joined Cap in paying a visit to the X-Mansion."

Carol had, thankfully, made it back to the observatory before the alien robot had, giving her ample reason to make a mental note to thank the three Avengers later for whatever they were doing to keep the killing machine busy, and upon her arrival, the blonde woman had immediately raced inside and sent out the alarm to evacuate, racing into the control room that Doctor Lawson was in last, and finding the good doctor himself standing there, checking something on one of his wrists when she came in. "Philip," Carol shouted, getting the man's attention. "We're evacuating! We've gotta clear out. We've got a big problem."

"What kind of problem," Philip asked, and his answer ended up being Giant-Man getting thrown into the room through the ceiling, followed a minute later by the alien robot that Hank had been trying to stall. "Ah, never mind."

The robot then started to make its way towards Carol and Lawson, not even stopping to acknowledge Wasp and Angel Guardian swooping in to blast it again. Carol then tried to take action by shooting at the metal menace with her rifle again, only to have the same results as the last few times she had tried shooting at it. The robot then directed its attention elsewhere and was about to fire its eye beams once again, when Giant-Man suddenly leapt up and grabbed it from behind, forcing the beam to end up being fired at a power junction box that was directly behind Carol and Lawson. Lawson was quick to jump on top of Carol just as the junction box exploded, covering both of them in smoke and, strangely, an eerie green glow.

If any of the three Avengers noticed that glow though, they did not pay it any mind, as Hank's attempts to redirect the robot's eye lasers ended up slicing through a light fixture that crashed down on top of Janet, while the robot itself merely spun its head around and blasted Hank with a massive jolt of electricity that led him to collapse. Aelita was quick to pepper the machine with a barrage of energy fields from one hand so that she could distract it while digging Wasp out of the rumble, but it did not seem to make much difference until her energy blasts were suddenly joined by a single blue one. When Janet and Aelita turned to the source of the unknown blast along with the robot, they were both a bit shocked at what they saw.

There, standing over an unconscious Carol, was Doctor Lawson, whose appearance was flickering between what they knew, and that of a blue skinned man in a white, black, and green suit with a similarly colored pistol held in one hand and green eyes. Lawson then seemed to retract the blaster into his arm before saying, "Everyone, stay down."

"Lawson, why are you blue," Wasp asked as the robot stomped over to him.

"Really," Aelita asked. "That's what you're asking right now?"

"I am Geheneris Hala'son Mar-Vell," the blue-skinned man told the robot once it had stopped in front of him, "Blues Commander of the Kree Void Science Navy. Deactivate all weapons and shut down. This is a direct order."

"Order not valid," the robot responded, much to the shock of everyone who was still conscious, which was only furthered by the fact that they were in the presence of what was most likely an alien soldier.

Hank then noticed what the robot was staring at, and immediately called out in a weak voice, "Lawson, the power core…"

Hank's warning came too late, as the robot had already begun firing on the base's power core. With no time to do anything else, "Lawson", or Mar-Vell as he had identified himself as, quickly scooped Carol up into his arms and flew towards the nearest exit, with Aelita doing the same with Janet a second later, and Hank simply making a jump for it. The base had exploded just as Hank had landed on the platform that the Quinjet was on, and he was soon greeted by their new, alien friend, who was holding Carol in his arms, Aelita, and Wasp, who was giving him a mild glare. Hank tried his best to quell her possible anger towards him by offering a small smile, but Janet simply turned away to throw another glare at their unexpected visitor as she said, "You've got a lot of explaining to do, Blue-Guy. And to think, I said you were cute!"

"Again, is this really the time to be saying stuff like that," Aelita asked Janet with a sigh as she radioed the other Avengers and told them to meet them at the nearest hospital, seeing as they more than likely needed to get Carol to a doctor as quickly as possible.

A few hours later into the night, Janet was standing alongside Carol's hospital bed as she looked sadly at her friend, who was hooked up to a heart monitor, while Aelita and Hank stood outside with the man who they had originally been told was named Lawson, alongside Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk. The three were the only other Avengers who were available at the time, since Hawkeye was following up on a lead on Black Widow's whereabouts with Black Panther, and Captain America was still paying a visit to the X-Mansion and would not have been able to make it back in time. The strange thing was that none of them had been able to reach Ulrich at all, and while she was concerned a bit about what was going on with her brother, Aelita knew that this current situation took more importance.

"My name is Mar-Vell," the alien man informed the gathered Avengers. "And I'm what you'd call a captain in the science division of the Kree Navy."

"I don't like him," Hulk interrupted.

"You don't like anyone," Hank pointed out.

"Not true. I like Tinker Bell," Hulk argued as he indicated Aelita, getting a small smile with a soft giggle in response from the girl.

Hank only shook his head before prompting Mar-Vell to continue. "The Kree are one of the galaxy's most ancient civilizations," Mar-Vell explained. "One of the super powers, and we're at war with another one, the Skrulls. Both empires are looking for strategic footholds to fight the war, as well as resources, and your solar system is in a strategically desirable location."

"And the robot," Hank asked.

"The Kree send out a sentry drone to 'de-fang' any natives," Mar-Vell answered. "To eliminate long-range detection, any space-faring capability, and to eliminate all potential threats."

"Well then I guess it's a good thing that the robot went boom along with the base," Aelita pointed out.

"No it wasn't. Kree sentries can't be stopped," Mar-Vell then grimly, revealed. "If the sentry drone sees that a planet's population is going to be a problem, it's designed with the capability to…eliminate the problem."

"Eliminate? What do you mean," Janet asked as she stepped out of Carol's room and joined the conversation.

"Each sentry is equipped with a Mega-Bomb, a device designed to exterminate a troublesome species on any targeted planet, and given the fight you just put up, I'd say you've got about one hour before you experience the Mega-Bomb firsthand."

"Have I mentioned how much I hate robots," Aelita groaned when she heard that.

Janet's reaction was actually something completely different though, and probably something that one would not normally expect from the small-sized hero, but given that her friend was hurt because of this sentry, it was actually a bit understandable. "Hulk, smash him!"

"Finally," Hulk grinned, and he instantly had Mar-Vell pinned against the wall in one of his massive hands, while the Kree soldier had materialized his laser gun in response, which led Iron Man, Thor, and Aelita to all ready their own attacks in response as well.

"Okay everybody, just breathe," Hank immediately cut in, attempting to placate the situation before anyone did something they would later regret. "Let's all remember that Captain Mar-Vell here saved Carol's life."

"Hey, you know what? I'm also remembering that he's an alien spy, and just told us that his people are going to wipe out our planet," Janet immediately argued, clearly showing that she was really upset with Hank going against her like this, at least from her perspective.

"She has a point," Aelita agreed. "But then again, Mar-Vell never really did say what he wanted here, just what his people wanted, so care to tell us why you're here, Mar-Vell?"

Mar-Vell glanced between Hank and the pink haired Avenger for a minute before he retracted his gun and raised his hands in surrender as he explained, "I want to help. I'm scientist, a zeno-biologist. I'd heard rumors of a genetic anomaly on Earth, and I came to investigate. I've been studying you for three years now."

"Studying us? Charming," Iron Man scoffed as he lowered his repulsor and crossed his arms.

"Humanity seems…different than most civilizations we conquer. Humans have…potential," Mar-Vell explained as he threw a small glance towards the unconscious Carol. "She should be allowed to survive."

"Don't you mean 'they'," Iron Man pointed out.

Aelita on the other hand got a small, mischievous smirk, as she instantly realized that Mar-Vell's reasons for wanting to help clearly went beyond what he was telling them. Of course, not everyone noticed this. "Your tale rings false, Kree," Thor growled. "You claim to be here to 'study humanity', yet were at the observatory when it was attacked. You are in league with the machine."

"No," Mar-Vell instantly protested as he brought his attention back to the Avengers. "I knew the observatory would be a target! I was trying to cloak the facility, to keep the Kree from detecting it, and I failed, but there's still time to save your species. Please, let me help you."

It seemed to be an eternity before the team made a decision given how tense things had suddenly become, but in the end, they all agreed to trust Mar-Vell for the moment and let him help stop the robot. Of course, not everyone was so quick to trust him. "If he does anything suspicious, smash him," Wasp whispered to Hulk.

"Real mature, Jan," Aelita remarked with a heavy amount of sarcasm and a quick eye-roll. She then pulled out both her Avengers ID card and the personal communication device that she and Ulrich used, of which she had now given to both Spider-Man and White Tiger in addition to the one that Hulk still had, and tried to call her adopted brother again, only to get the same results as before. "Seriously, what is Ulrich doing that's keeping him from answering his stupid phone," Aelita groaned.

"Now you know how I felt when we went to Wakanda," Iron Man reminded her in a dry tone.

"Let it go, Tony," Aelita sighed, tiredly as they all moved to chase down the deadly, Kree sentry.

The team of seven moved as quickly as they could to search the area near where the observatory originally was, as Mar-Vell had explained that the sentry was likely to still be moving slowly on foot, and it did not take long until they finally found the exploding robot in an empty drive-in theater, only to be brought to a sudden stop by Mar-Vell. "We need to be careful here," the Kree scientist explained. "The Mega-Bomb is armed."

Not even a second after he said that, the Hulk had dived down towards the machine and started smashing his fists against the sentry's head. "You probably should've said that before we got here so that Hulk wouldn't have done that," Aelita remarked.

"And you may have been wrong about humanity showing promise," Ant-Man then added dryly from his perch on Mar-Vell's shoulder. "Do we have a plan?"

"We need to open it up and expose the Mega-Bomb core before it completes charging," Mar-Vell replied as he materialized a pair of laser pistols into his hands. "That will deactivate it."

"Easier said than done, I take it," Hank then asked.

"I enjoy your species gift for understatement," Mar-Vell simply smiled in response.

At that point, Hulk was about to rip off the sentry's head, but the Kree robot simply changed one of its long arms into a blaster that knocked the Hulk of its head in a single shot. It then changed its hand into another weapon that fired a sticky substance at Thor just as he was charging in. Iron Man, Wasp, Angel Guardian, and Mar-Vell were quick to open fire with a volley of their own long-range attacks on the machine as it buried its lower half beneath the ground and extended a set of tentacles that lashed out at the four shooting heroes. In little to no time at all, Iron Man and Wasp were both knocked out of the fight for a moment, leaving only Aelita and the Avengers' new alien friend to continue trying to avoid the sentry's attacks while firing a barrage on said robot. The two soon found Hank joining into the fight when the size changer jumped off Mar-Vell's shoulder and changed into Giant-Man, landing on its right set of tentacles as he did, and then grabbing as many of the other tentacles as quickly as he could.

"Mar-Vell, go," Giant-Man shouted as he struggled to keep his hold on the machine's many offending arms. Mar-Vell was quick to react and changed his two pistols into a large laser cannon, which he then fired at near-point-blank range. The force of the resulting blasts from the cannon ended up blowing Hank off of the robot, and destabilizing Aelita's flight for a minute, but soon revealed to have yielded no results what-so-ever. Mar-Vell could only snarl in irritation at the sight of this, and he immediately formed a two-handed sword before diving down and stabbing the machine's head with said weapon while Hank started to rise back up to his feet, and Aelita moved to blast the tentacles so that the Kree scientist was not hit.

"How's it going with your new BFF," Wasp suddenly asked as she flew up next to Hank while continuing to fire her stingers at the sentry.

"You're giving me a hard time now," Hank exclaimed. "Mar-Vell is trying to save us, Jan, and he's probably the only one with the knowledge to do it!"

At that point, the two size changers had to duck in order to avoid a stray shot from the sentry, leading Wasp to cease her barrage and finally relent, saying, "Seriously Hank, you know what? I give up. I try and try with you, but it's never good enough. I just can't be as interesting to you as aliens."

"W-what?! What're you talking about," Hank asked in complete and utter shock upon hearing Janet say this.

"Hey guys, fighting to save the planet from being wiped out over here! Could you two please save the couple's counseling session for later," Aelita demanded as she struggled to stay ahead of the sentry's tentacles. Before either of the size changers could reply, Aelita's heightened hearing suddenly picked up on something among the din of the attacks that the sentry was throwing out, and she immediately saw that the sentry was firing a barrage of missiles directly at said size changers. "JAN! HANK! WATCH OUT!"

Janet barely had time to spin around and see what was wrong after she heard Aelita's warning before she suddenly found herself enclosed in a pair of large, black gloved hands, shielding her from the missiles that had almost hit her. Janet felt whatever was shielding her tumble across the ground for a minute, until it finally stopped and she pulled herself free, sporting a few bruises from the explosion. When she did pull herself free though, Janet felt her heart stop for a minute when she saw who had just saved her. "Hank," Janet asked in a weak voice as she gazed down at a seriously injured and battered Giant-Man, whose hands were still clasped around her.

"Go," Hank groaned even more weakly than she did. "Bomb's…only thing that matters." He then glanced down at the miniaturized woman who had just climbed out of his enlarged hands and said, "Jan, I…I lo…"

Janet could only stare down at Hank with tears in her eyes as he passed out before he could finish what he was saying, but her expression immediately went from sad to enraged as she turned her attention back towards the machine that had hurt Hank, and immediately took to the skies to join the other Avengers and Mar-Vell, all of whom had gotten their second winds, and immediately let loose the most fierce stinger barrage she had ever thrown. This in addition to Iron Man firing both his repulsors and Unibeam, Thor blasting a continuous stream of lightning from Mjolnir, Mar-Vell firing a continuous burst from his large cannon, Hulk tearing out every weapon he could, and Aelita firing a barrage of energy fields from one hand while focusing her creativity to weaken the sentry's armor with the other, soon resulted in creating a small opening into the robots insides that Janet was quick to fly into so that she could unleash her furry on the inside of the machine that had hurt her friends and Hank.

A few minutes after Wasp had flown into the sentry, the machine let out a massive burst of electricity before hunching over a bit as it became completely still, allowing Hulk to rip the sentry's head off and then tear open its chest to reveal Wasp sitting on a large, spherical object right in the center of the massive, metal menace. "So, um…I think I'm sitting on the bomb," Wasp told the team as soon as they had ceased their attacks and saw her inside.

"And you guys say it's scary when I'm mad," Aelita muttered to the others as she made a note to make doubly sure that she never pissed off Wasp just as a large, green hologram suddenly activated to display a three-dimensional image of a Kree's head.

"Mar-Vell, what are…by Haela," the Kree swore when he saw the sight before him.

"Yon-Rag," Mar-Vell identified as he gave a quick salute to the Kree before he began his plea. "Commander, I implore you, shut down the Mega-Bomb. Humanity can be an ally to the Kree. We need not destroy them!"

"You've gone soft, Mar-Vell," the Kree commander snarled. "As of now, Earth is part of the Kree Empire! That does not require humanity or you to survive! Burn traitor."

The second that the transmission had ended, Wasp had immediately jumped off of the bomb and over to her teammates as the device began to glow, showing that it was going to go off. "Tell me some good news," Iron Man half-begged Mar-Vell as the Kree scientist began to do some work with the machinery connecting the bomb to the sentry.

"I can diffuse it in about ten minutes," Mar-Vell revealed, leading Iron Man to give a quick sigh of relief, until he heard the next thing that the alien captain said. "It's going to go off in about five."

"I know you're not from around here and all, but that was more like bad news," Iron Man told him in worried retort.

"We have to evacuate," Wasp quickly cut in.

"The blast radius is the entire planet, Wasp," Mar-Vell immediately informed her, shooting down the idea immediately. "Evacuation isn't an option."

"Bet I'll survive," Hulk huffed, but he quickly recoiled under the disapproving look that Aelita threw at him for that comment.

"Your compassion is overwhelming, troll," Thor added in addition to said look from the pink haired girl.

"This is all your fault," Wasp immediately snarled, still clearly angry over what had just happened, as she threw an accusing finger at Mar-Vell.

"…I know," Mar-Vell said before he grabbed the bomb and flew up into the sky, ignoring Janet's pleas to stop and her protests as she tried to say that she did not mean it, clearly showing that he wanted to do what he was doing. Mar-Vell continued to fly higher and higher, until eventually, he was just above the atmosphere, right to the point where he could feel the cold of space beginning to freeze him over until he passed out and began falling back to the planet.

He never came close to hitting it though, as Iron Man had quickly flown up to catch him on his descent while Thor went to retrieve the Mega-Bomb and finish the job that Mar-Vell had started. The Asgardian continued to fly higher and faster until he finally threw the bomb with all his might, sending it hurtling past the moon, where it finally exploded, safely away from both Earth and the moon, and knocking Thor back down towards the planet in the resulting shockwave. Thor was knocked unconscious for a moment, but soon found himself waking up in Aelita's arms, indicating that the Angel Guardian had caught him just as he had reentered the atmosphere. The Angel Guardian simply smiled at him upon seeing that the blonde Thunderer had awoken before she then flew them off to join the other Avengers in carrying Hank to the hospital that Carol was still in.

A short while later, the team had gotten Hank back to his original size, and the male size changer was soon found lying on a bed in the same hospital room as Carol, with Janet right next to him, as the young woman had not left his side for a minute more than necessary after they had gotten him into the hospital, while the other Avengers and Mar-Vell simply stood outside the room. Finally, Thor ended up breaking the silence that was only filled by the nearby heart monitor as he told Aelita, "I would've woken before I hit ground. I did not need you to catch me."

"Of course you didn't, your highness," Aelita smirked knowingly in reply.

"Wimp," Hulk chuckled as he gave Thor a light elbow to the side while Tony did his best to suppress his own laughter before turning to Mar-Vell.

"Okay, world saved, mission accomplished," Tony informed the Kree captain, but if there was one thing that Mar-Vell seemed to be good at, it was saying the opposite of what they thought was good news.

"No. The Kree will be back, and they won't underestimate you Avengers again," Mar-Vell told the leader of the Avengers.

"So, what now?"

"Now I go to the supreme intelligence, our leader," Mar-Vell informed them. "I'll make an appeal for Earth's survival, but you should prepare for the storm that's coming."

The Avengers all immediately nodded in understanding, and allowed Mar-Vell to step into the hospital room that Jan, Hank, and Carol were occupying. As soon as Janet had turned her attention to him, the Kree captain immediately told her, "I am truly sorry Wasp. Watch over them."

"…Mar-Vell," Jan finally said after a minute, causing said Kree to pause for a moment. "Thank you."

Mar-Vell smiled in reply to Wasp's thanks and then vanished in a flash of light, signifying that he was returning home to do as he said he would, and prompting the other Avengers to take their leave as well so that Janet could have some time with Hank alone. As they were leaving, Aelita glanced at the two size changers before she smiled and said, "I think they're going to be okay soon enough. Now that only leaves two things to take care of."

"And what be that, Lady Aelita," Thor asked as they stepped out of the hospital.

"One, getting those two to go out on an actual date in which they finally admit their true feelings for each other," Aelita replied with a mischievous grin that was similar to the one that Janet used to gain whenever she was teasing the pink haired girl about her relationship with Peter. Her tone then became slightly sinister as she then added, "And two, strangling every last bit of information out of Ulrich as to where the hell he was when we were fighting that alien robot."

The other three Avengers could only smile in agreement with Aelita's first statement, while also saying silent prayers for Ulrich in case his reasons did not quell Aelita's anger at him.

Janet ended up being unable to sleep at all for the remainder of the night, and it was soon very early morning before she finally rested her head on Hank's hospital bed for a minute. This only lasted for a brief moment, as she soon found herself saying, "I'm sorry Hank. I'm so sorry for being so mean, for the way I treat you, for everything."

"Wow. Are you sure you're not an alien," Hank's voice suddenly said, which led Janet to immediately jump her gaze over to him in time to see the Ant-Man wide awake and slowly sitting up. "I take it we didn't blow up," Hank then joked with a small groan.

Janet could not stop the smile that immediately lit up her face as she laughed a bit at Hank's little joke and pulled him into a tight hug, despite his short cries of pain. Janet then suddenly released Hank as she quickly remembered, "Hey, right before you passed out, you were going to say something really important. Go ahead."

"What," Hank asked, before he suddenly remembered exactly what Janet was talking about and his face immediately turned to the same color as Aelita's hair as he began stuttering in response. "Oh, I…uh…no, I was just…em…No i-it wasn't…"

"Guys," Carol's voice suddenly interrupted softly, drawing their attention towards the blonde woman, only to find their gazes drifting upwards to just a little ways bellow the ceiling, where they saw the woman herself floating there, surrounded by a sparkling, yellow glow. "Why is the ceiling so low," Carol asked nervously.

One look between the two of them, and Janet and Hank both knew that the answer to Carol's question was likely just the beginning of many things to come for Earth and its mightiest heroes.

AN: Well, that's that. Not a lot changed this time around aside from the addition of Aelita to the team and explanation as to where most of the other Avengers were during this time, save for Ulrich, but all-in-all, I'd say that this really couldn't have gone any other way.

I honestly feel like the whole final battle against the Kree sentry was a bit short in the episode while still being as epic a fight as you'd expect from the Avengers when they're in battle, so I can only hope that I did well on depicting it here in this chapter as well. Now, for those of you who were wondering where the hell Ulrich was during all this, well, here's a hint: Onto the preview!...

Ulrich's whereabouts during the Kree sentry incident are revealed, as the Sprint Samurai finds himself joining White Tiger, Phil Coulson, and the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in a specialized mission to discover an extraordinary mystery. With HYDRA after the same thing, and little time to act before said mystery is in their hands, can Ulrich and one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best team of agents retrieve what their after in time, and if they can, what will be uncovered about the mysterious Agent Skye? Find out next time in…Chapter 14: Samurai of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Think you've got it figured out? If not, then you need to start by looking carefully at the chapter title and then think about some of the many forms of media associated with the MARVEL cinematic universe. So with that said...

Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!